Peace At A Price

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 39, 21 March 1940, Page 12

Peace At A Price

E work so far ahead of our printer that it is not possible, writing on the day on which the terms are announced, to say with any confidence what the settlement in Finland finally means. There is peace at a price, a price that we can estimate easily enough on the map; but the real payment has still to be revealed. If the situation is what first impressions suggest, Finland has ceased to exist as an independent State. It has joined Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as a vassal state of Russia. It has lost, not only its existing defences, but both the right and the power to replace them. For there is no suggestion in the terms announced that they will be less onerous in fact than they are on paper. Russia has taken the pound of flesh and the plate on which it has been offered. So much for the unfortunate Finns, who have been deserted by their Scandinavian neighbours, and left to make what use they can of an immortal reputation for courage. For ourselves the question is what effect the settlement has on the struggle with Germany? It is clear enough that Germany is pleased officially. Whatever the German people think, the attack on Finland was permitted, if not actually encouraged, by the German Government. It was a part of the brigands’ bargain signed in Moscow six months ago. But we need not assume too hastily that it helps Germany. It helps Germany if Russia, having achieved her immediate aims in the northwest, turns to the south-east. But it is far from certain that Russia will do this. Even if the Finns had not pricked the bubble of Russia’s military reputation, which was never a very big bubble, dictatorships can’t afford to be sentimental. Russia was not vulnerable in the north-west without the help of Scandinavia. She is extremely vulnerable in the south-east however the tides of war now ‘flow. And she will not fight the Allies to help the Germans. All we can say at this stage is that a vast amount of military material has been released for totalitarian purposes. But it will be used for Russian and not for German ends if the two are different. In the meantime Allied armies and ships have been released for Allied purposes.